


It Snows Over Stockholm

by Ryanfreewood



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF, X-Ray & Vav (Cartoon)
Genre: I like hurting vav too much ;-;, Kidnapping, M/M, Slow Burn, Slow To Update, Stockholm Syndrome, or is it :0
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-03
Updated: 2017-10-03
Packaged: 2019-01-08 15:53:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12257478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ryanfreewood/pseuds/Ryanfreewood
Summary: Originally uploaded to my old tumblr blog that got deleted. ;-;--Vav wakes up to a living nightmare the day after what was supposed to be a routine mission goes sour. He finds himself trapped in one of the Mad King’s many hideaways with no one but the villain himself to keep him company.





	1. Chapter 1

Vav awakens to a splitting headache and a dimly lit bedroom. 

He has no clue where he is. He has no clue how he got here. But, a sneaking suspicious tells him drugging and kidnapping may have been involved somehow if the pounding headache and dry mouth are anything to go off of.

It takes a while before he can actually sit up and observe his surrounding, the effects of the drug still a heavy weight upon his body. His first steps out of the bed are coltish and wobbly, his legs to used to going unused for so long.

The first thing he notices about his new environment is that it’s eerily cozy looking. Like, his captor knows he’s going to be here for a long time and for reason wants to make the best of it for him. 

The room is filled with nice well made furniture and shelves crammed with every manner of item for him to entertain himself with, puzzles, books, games, toys……

And, in an equally nice and creepy gesture the wardrobe is filled with clothes taken right out of Vav’s apartment.

He’s also incredibly squicked out to realize his suit, gloves, and heavy boots have been taken off of his person and replaced with a disgustingly comfortable set of pajamas. 

A creeping feeling of dread enters Vav’s subconscious,. He hasn’t just been kidnapped, he’s been caged like a sick bastardization of a housepet. The nice comfortable room, the clothes, the items to keep him entertained in his new cage….

His captor must mean to keep him here for a very long time.

Vav feels a dawning sense of horror at this revelation and decides it’s time to start looking for ways out of this place before his captor comes to see him. 

The room has only two doors. One set of double doors that he suspects leads out to the rest of whatever hellscape he was currently trapped in and a single door set into the far wall. He tries the single door first if only just to look for items that he could use to break out or possibly defend himself with. 

The crisp white paneled door opens onto an equally crisp and gleaming white bathroom complete with toiletries and tasteful decorations. The whole room smells faintly of cleaners and air fresheners. He moves warily passed the large shower tub combo as if his kidnapper could be hiding behind the solid white shower curtain, just waiting for the opportune moment to pounce. 

The medicine cabin turns out to be empty with the exception of a spare tube of toothpaste and a packet of floss. The drawers under the sink are equally barren or hold items that are currently of no value to Vav’s cause. He does take the chance to alleviate his dry mouth though by turning the sink faucet on full blast and taking great gulps of clean cool water like a man who had been wandering the desert without for days. 

He decides it’s time to go try the other door. He exits the bathroom and makes his way across the room and just before he reaches out for the silver pull door handle a deep voice calls out,”I wouldn’t touch that if I were you.”

Vav spins abruptly on his heel only to come face to face with the Mad King. 

Vav feels uneasy with how easy it must have been for the older man to make himself so unoticable to him. He hadn’t even noticed the supervillain sitting innocuously on the edge of the bed when he had come out of the bathroom. It makes him wonder if it had been just as easy to get the drop on him the night Vav had been taken, and if so, he also wonders if he’s really ever been that much of a threat to this man at all. 

He hadn’t even heard the large double doors opening. 

“Mad King,” Vav addresses the villain as if he were something wholly distasteful to him,”What do you want with me?” 

Vav tries to ignore the way his voice cracks from disuse, making him sound as he was frightened by the Mad King’s sudden presence. Mad King isn’t about to indulge him with such luxuries though and man gives Vav an unsettling smile. A smile that promises pain and suffering should Vav even dare to defy his purpose. Then his face softens marginally as if he’s trying to force himself to play nice with his captive and appear inviting. Really, it only serves to set Vav further on edge.

“Nothing…”, Mad King says,”You don’t have anything that could be of use to me. At least, not yet.” 

His gaze upon Vav in that moment feels piercing, almost scrutinizing. It’s as if he’s examining Vav for signs of this supposed worth he could have to someone like the Mad King. 

“Whatever it is you want, it’s not gonna’ happen.”, Vav says, trying to sound as convincing and immovable as he can.

He must make for quite the sight trying to seem defiant and strong while clad in fluffy pajamas and bedhead because the Mad King gives a soft huff of laughter as if the hero is nothing more than a particularly amusing pet performing a well loved trick. 

“Very well.”, The Mad King says in that maddeningly slow way he has, as if every single syllable needed to be meticulously thought out and calculated before it was ever spoken,” We’ll see exactly how far you can bend before I break you.” 

The icy blue of his eyes has suddenly become piercing and hard once again. 

“You can hold out for as long as you’d like, Vav, but remember I always win these type of games.”,And, with that last statement Mad King breezes through the now unlocked double doors. 

Vav hesitates for a moment before stepping out of the doors to follow him, but finds the new room empty with the exception of an exquisite looking dining set and a silver platter of food on the large table.


	2. Chapter 2

Vav sits, curled up with his knees to his chest, for a long while after Mad King’s departure. 

He can’t stop thinking over the things the villain had said to him about breaking him into his worth. What worth?

Vav doesn’t really think of himself as anything particularly special, there’s not really anything he can think of off the top of his head that he can do that no one else in the world can. He’s obviously not being kept here just so he can be kept out of the way of Mad King’s next nefarious plot. If that’s all the villain had wanted he would have had no qualms about just simply killing Vav and moving on. 

No, he was here to fulfill a purpose. Something special that he has that Vav clearly can’t see but the Mad King somehow can.

His stomach grumbled loudly as if to break him out of his thoughts. Vav thought longingly of the lunch (breakfast? dinner? He has no real way of knowing the time anymore…) that had been left for him. He hadn’t even had a taste from the silver platter, not trusting Mad King not to poison or drug him again. 

Of course, that was kind of ridiculous. It would be kind of dumb for the Mad King to drag him into an elaborate plot like this only to kill him off in the first day. He also very obviously doesn’t need to keep Vav subdued when he has such a great advantage over Vav. The Mad King has probably meticulously thought out every detail of Vav’s captivity. 

He’s left him with no weapons, no way of knowing where he is, or even what time it is, and made absolutely sure Vav would be entirely dependent on him in order to gain Vav’s compliance. (It’s absolutely not going to stop Vav trying his luck with escape attempts though.)

So, in other words, the food is most likely safe and he’s starving himself for no reason other than his own stubbornness in regards to taking handouts from his captor. 

Besides, his traitorous mind supplies, it might help him to get a bit of his strength back and help clear his head to have a bit of warm food in his belly. At that thought, Vav sighs and drags himself up off the bed and into the dining room. 

The plate is still there looking innocent on top of the expensive looking red and gold place mat. The food has long stopped giving off any steam, probably lukewarm by now. Vav hesitantly pulls out his chair and sits down, before flicking open the rolled cloth napkin containing silverware. He thinks fleetingly of pocketing the elegant butterknife for later use but pushes that thought away when he realizes Mad King probably wouldn’t have given him such an item if he expected Vav to find it useful in someway. 

It would have been a stupidly cliche escape attempt anyways, he thinks. Also, experience in fighting the Mad King before now told him it was a bad idea to provoke a physical fight with the man while Vav didn’t have the protection of his gloves. 

Instead he gingerly picks up a fork and starts pushing forkfuls of pasta and heavy creamy sauce around his plate as if inspecting the food for contaminants. 

“It isn’t drugged if that’s what you're so worried about.”

Vav just barely manages not to startle this time and keeps his features flat and disinterested when the Mad King slides into the chair across from him. He bit back a demand to know how the hell the villain was creeping around this place so fast and instead opted not to give the Mad King the satisfaction of even being acknowledged 

“Not feeling chatty today, Vav?”

He continues to pick at his food in subdued silence and thinks bitterly about stabbing the fork in his hand into the Mad King’s smug face instead of the now cold pasta on his plate. 

This goes on awkwardly (at least on Vav’s part) for a handful of minutes. Vav stares at his food as if it’s the most interesting thing in the world while pointedly ignoring his kidnapper and spearing bits of cold (but fucking delicious) noodles with a little more aggression than was really necessary. Mad King waits idly for Vav to breakdown (Not gonna fucking happen bucko) while tapping an annoying discordant rhythm on the dark stained table top, as if he’s trying to slowly pester Vav into being sociable. 

Vav levels him with an irritated glare and Mad King simply raises a brow as if daring Vav to be the first to break the silence between them.

Vav quickly runs out of patience with putting up with all the tension in the room (again, probably only on his part) and slides his plate away before standing up and retreating back to the bedroom.

He finally snaps when he hears the telltale sound of a chair scraping against the tiled floor which signals Mad King either intends to leave or to try and follow him into his only form of sanctuary in this god forsaken place. 

“Why the hell are doing this? Are you really so pathetic you need kidnap people to annoy all day just to get a scrap of attention these days?”,Vav spits caustically. 

For a single split second the villain's eyes take on a wounded appearance, but it’s covered so quickly by the Mad King’s usual mask of smug coldness that Vav is almost sure he’d imagined it entirely. When his expression slides into one of patronizing disappointment Vav has to resist the urge to try and punch it off.

“I had truly had high hopes that you could behave long enough for a tour of the rest of our new living quarters. But, it appears I must have been wrong.”,Mad King says and Vav’s mind immediately gets stuck on the word ‘our’. 

“It seems you may need a bit more time to think on things.”,The mad man says before the previously solid dining room wall splits open and the Mad King steps through into the next set of rooms.

Vav has barely enough time to catch a glimpse of a spacious den and kitchenette before the wall snaps shut once again and he’s left alone.

Well, at least know he knows how the Mad kIng keeps sneaking up on him.


	3. Chapter 3

Vav doesn’t see the Mad King again for the rest of that day, which honestly is fine by him. He’d be happy if he never saw the villain again in his entire life after he breaks out of here.

If he ever get out of here…..yeah, probably best not to start thinking like that.

Vav spends the rest of night (day?) in silent resignation. He tries entertaining himself with the books on the crammed shelves, but quickly realizes he can’t concentrate on the pages long enough to follow the story. After tossing the book back onto the shelf it came from he goes and sits cross legged on the unfairly comfortable bed. 

He stays there, just thinking over his situation and any way at all that he could exploit to break out. Every idea he comes up with gets shot down almost immediately for either being too obvious or complicated bordering on physically impossible dependent upon his current situation. He’d just have to accept that ‘tour’ Mad King had spoken of and maybe figure some things out from there. If anything it would at least give Vav a bit of insight into the layout of this place. Also it probably wouldn’t hurt to act just a little more complicit when his captor came to call, lull him into a false sense of security maybe. (Unlikely, but worth a shot.)

Eventually Vav gets tired enough to try and sleep, burrowing under the heavy duvet as if he meant to use it as a shield from an unseen attacker. 

Vav awakes the next day with the intention of putting his plan of suffering through playing nice with the Mad King, but he doesn’t see hide or hair of the villain the entire day. 

He dresses mechanically in his usual civilian attire of a T-shirt and jeans and goes into the bathroom to brush his teeth. No bad guys here. 

Still nothing when Vav tries again to kill some time with a book, this time gratefully making it through a whole chapter before he loses his focus and has to stop. He doesn’t get even a single sign that his continued presence in the house (?) has been acknowledged.

He gets hungry eventually and decides to slip out of his room and see if lunch has been laid out for him like yesterday. 

The door isn’t locked this time and slides open for him easily. 

Just as he hoped another platter of food has been laid out for him just like yesterday. There’s yet again no signs of the Mad King. Maybe he was just waiting for Vav to take his place first before trying to sneak up on Vav again. 

Following that line of thought Vav takes his seat and waits a moment, hoping to be ready and composed the moment the mad man decides finally come for him. 

Nothing.

He unrolls his silverware with a dejected (not like he actually wanted the company of a kidnapper anyways) sigh and digs into his food. This time he’s been given a hearty meat and vegetable stew with a heel of sinfully soft and buttery bread. He ends up clearing the plate, his appetite coming back to him now that he hasn’t been pumped full of sedatives. 

Once he’s done, Vav pushes his plate away and waits patiently a while before he gets bored with tracing the wood grain of the table with his fingers and goes back to the bedroom. 

He picks up his book again and resigns himself to waiting. 

________________

This becomes his routine. For several days he’s left alone, and every day he takes the opportunity to plot and keep up with his training (he wouldn’t put it past Hilda not to take kidnapping as an excuse for slacking off) as best he can in confined quarters. Every night he curls up in bed again too exhausted by the day's activities to stay awake for long. Sleep comes to him easily but unfortunately it also brings nightmares of the night of the attack. 

Now that the heavy film of the sedatives has been lifted he’s started recalling little snatches here and there of the mission that cost him his freedom. They replay sometimes in his dreams all distorted and shadowy. The scenery of the shady little warehouse on the outskirts of the city now twisted into a maze of catwalks and cold metal walls filled with swaths of darkness that follow him with icy blue eyes that he can’t run from fast enough. 

Vav always wakes up from those dreams startled and sweating cold bullets. He simply fights to get his breathing back under control and tries to drown the shadows under the scalding spray of the shower before slipping back into bed with a book, knowing he won’t be getting anymore sleep that night. 

Then the cycle starts all over again the next day. 

Days here in the compound start to bleed together into a monotonous blur with no one around but the characters in the books he’d been left to keep him company. 

It takes nearly seven days before the isolation and boredom get to be too much for him to handle. 

Vav can feel desperation and depression creeping up on him like an oppressive cloud and decides on that seventh day he’s finally had enough of the Mad King’s game of keepaway. So, he makes a plan. 

He figures this place doesn’t just run itself. So, logically Vav assumes that Mad King has to be the one bringing him food and clearing away the dishes or there has to be unseen staff around to do all the dirty work for the villain instead. And, if there’s staff they’re obviously going to be working off of a schedule.

Vav almost feels like punching himself, his ticket to freedom so obvious now that it was within reach. (Or, at the very least he’d have the Mad King’s attention again with the ruckus he’s going to cause.)

He’ll just wait in his room like usual but keep the door cracked so he can spy on the dining room. When the hidden door slides open during the next staff rotation he can just simply try (try being the opportune word here) and ambush the next person that comes in for questioning. 

This plan goes off without a hitch at first. 

Vav forces himself to stay up after he finishes his next dinner and waits by the barely cracked door for someone to come and retrieve the dirty plates. After what feels like hours (but probably was really only a few minutes) as expected the hidden panel slides open, except it’s not the cleaning staff who’s come around to tidy up as Vav had thought. 

It’s incredibly odd for Vav to see the Mad King out of his usual regal attire, even more odd to see him without the signature cracked golden crown. It’s so odd in fact to see the madman in such casual items as jeans (dad jeans, Vav thinks wryly) and a form fitting t-shirt that Vav reaches out to pull the door further open to get a better look. 

…….And, suddenly finds himself thrown back across the bedroom like a ragdoll as a fierce seizing pain shoots up and down his right arm and shoulder. Vav is knocked back so hard the back of his head collides with the opposite wall and he lets out a strangled yelp of pain. Black spots dance before his vision.

“To be fair, I do recall warning you not to touch that door while it’s supposed to be locked.”,Mad King says, crouching down in front of Vav. He reaches out as if to inspect Vav for injuries. Vav weakly smacks his hand away with an annoyed growl. How dare he try and act concerned with Vav’s well being at a time like this when Vav wouldn’t even be in this mess right now if it wasn’t for this terrible man and his fucking maniacal schemes. He doesn’t need or really even want the villain’s help.

Vav slowly pushes himself up again on wobbly legs while ignoring the Mad KIng’s outstretched hand and practically swoons and almost falls over again when he’s hit by a sudden wave of dizziness. 

An arm slipping around Vav’s shoulders at the last minute is the only thing that keeps him from tumbling back to the floor. 

The Mad King hauls Vav back up and he pulls the hero firmly against his side to keep Vav balanced. Vav very reluctantly allows himself to be lead to sit on the edge of the bed, but moving causes his dizziness to come back full force along with a wave of nausea. 

Mad King changes their course to the ensuite bathroom instead when Vav starts retching. 

There’s just barely enough time to get the hero into the bathroom where he collapses by the large tub and gives a particularly wet belch before letting loose a stream of vomit onto the white tub floor. 

Mad King wrinkles his nose in disgust and simply reaches over Vav to turn the faucet on, and the puddle of sick washes away down the drain. 

“Stay here.”, Mad King instructs, and backs out of the room before Vav can snap out a reply. He can’t even sit up straight without feeling like his world has been thrown completely off kilter, he’s very obviously not going anywhere anytime soon. 

He comes back moments later with a glass of water and a bottle of ibuprofen. Mad King shakes two little orangey brown pills out of the bottle before offering them along with the water to Vav. Vav regards the pills with suspicion wanting relief for his now pounding headache but not wanting to fall for another of the villain’s tricks. 

“They’re just painkillers.”, Mad King says mildly, and Vav wonders for the first time if this is what annoyance looks like on the mad man’s face.

“Well, can’t really blame me for being a bit cautious now can you?”,Vav jabs back, but he finally takes the pills along with the proffered glass and downs them with little hesitation. Mad King says nothing in response to that and his face falls back into a coldly neutral expression that somehow manages to make Vav feel like he’s being chastised for his continued hostility towards his jailor.

Which shouldn’t be as scary a thought as it is right now but, prolonged isolation can make people say, do, and even think a lot of crazy and scary things. 

But, Vav hasn’t even been left to his own devices that long so, obviously he’s not that far gone yet…..right? (Right. It would be ridiculous to think that a measly week alone would drive him up a wall….Or was it?)

What happens to him if his prolonged refusal to play nice causes Mad King to just give up on Vav as a lost cause though? 

Sure, it could cause him to get bored with Vav and Mad King could just choose to dump Vav back out in the real world, but let's be honest, he’d sooner slit Vav’s throat and leave his corpse in a dumpster than admit defeat. Or, he could keep Vav around just to use as a test subject for all of his diabolical experiments. Or…..yeah, he should probably stop this train of thought now before it crashes. 

“.....and you aren’t even listening to me now. Why did I expect any better?”

Vav snaps back to reality and notices the very faintest hints of annoyance have come back to ruin Mad King’s veneer of control. 

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t listenin’....”,Vav says in a spacey manner.

“Obviously.”,Mad King responds in a tone that drips exasperation,”I was saying, we should probably get you to bed before you injure yourself further today. Concussions can be nasty business if they’re not taken care of properly.”

There he goes again with all this ‘we’ talk.

Vav is a functioning adult who is more than capable of putting himself to bed so he can lick his wounds in peace, thank you very much. Also he really doesn’t want Mad King groping all over him again with his creepy serial killer hands.

“I don’t need your help.”,Vav says before rising only a couple centimeters from the floor and getting slammed with dizziness again. He tries stubbornly three more times while Mad King stands and looks on indifferently. After the fourth try he gives up and tries not to look too petulant when Mad King stoops down to help him up and looking quite smug. 

Vav braces himself to be hauled up by the arms again but Mad King seems to have other ideas. He ignores Vav’s outstretched hands and bends down to scoop the hero right up and into his arms. 

If Vav had expected anything to come of this day, he certainly hadn’t been expecting to be cradled in the arms of his arch nemesis while said nemesis carried him off to be tucked into bed like a sick child. Admittedly, nice arms though, warm and well muscled, leading to equally nice broad shoulders and…….

What.

“Put me down!”,Vav sqwaks out sounding almost panicked as he struggles in the Mad King’s firm hold under his knees and shoulders.

This only causes the villain to hold on tighter, practically smushing Vav against his chest so as to not drop the injured hero on the hard tiled floor. 

“Either be still and let me help you, or so fucking help me I will throw you down and you can drag yourself to bed on your own.”, Mad King growls out. The carefully crafted mask seems to give way for frustration.

He stills in Mad King’s arms at the authoritative tone. He really wouldn’t put it past him to actually physically throw Vav onto the hard floor while he’s already injured and he’d like to keep what little brain cells he can from his life of crime fighting to be honest. 

Vav allows himself to be carried in Mad King’s arms and dumped less than gracefully upon the plush bed covers. 

Before he can even say anything about his rude treatment, Mad King has already dragged the dust bin to Vav’s bedside and has placed the water glass and the little pill bottle down on the bedside table. 

“I’ll be keeping watch for now, feel free to rest.”,He turns before reaching the white double doors,”Oh, and one more thing. No more trying to sneak up on me.”

He leaves and snaps the white door shut behind him as he goes.

“Fuckin’ creep…”, Vav grumbles to himself and settles down for a night of paranoia and headaches.


End file.
